Libyan Forces Again Fire on Residents at Funerals

NY TIMES

 Libyan security forces opened fire once again on Benghazi residents Benghazi as they attended a funeral procession for the dozens killed the day before by the same government forces.

It was the fifth day of protests and violence in what has become the epicenter of the most serious challenge to four decades of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s rule.

Residents of Tripoli reported in telephone interviews Sunday that there had been smaller uprisings in three working class suburbs of the capitol, all quickly crushed by security forces. By Sunday morning, the number of confirmed deaths around the country had risen to at least 173 people, most of them in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city, Human Rights Watch reported.

The escalating violence in Benghazi — Libyans spoke of a “massacre,” though details could not be confirmed — appeared to mark a decisive turn in days of protests that have shaken Libya, a North African nation rich in oil. By nightfall, a deadly cycle had clearly emerged in a city where thousands have gathered in antigovernment demonstrations: Security forces fired on funeral marches, killing more protesters, creating more funerals.

The scope of the crackdown was almost impossible to verify in an isolated country that remains largely off limits to foreign journalists and, as part of the government’s efforts to squelch the protests, has been periodically cut off from the Internet.

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